From: "Mark Levenson" <markl-AT-levenson.com>
Subject: Re: Yale Puppeteers
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 11:26:02 -0800


you have quite a treasure.  good for you.  there was recently some
discussion on this board about the Yale Puppeteers, one of the more
prominent names in American puppetry.  Yes, that's Yale as in New Haven,
but they played Broadway, across the country, and eventually established a
famous theatre in Los Angeles for both puppet and human theatre reviews. 
Called "Turnabout Theatre" because the seats were reversible trolley car
seats;  after watching the puppet show, the audience turned their seats
around and saw human theatre review on the stage at the opposite end of the
theatre.  The Yale Puppeteers were also famous for their puppet
impersonations of the day's celebrities, and for the real-life celebrities
who worked with them, esp. Elsa Lanchester.

Forman Brown's autobiographical report of their early years was published
as Pilgrim's Progess in 1936 and then expanded and updated as "Small
Wonder: The Story of the Yale Puppeteers and the turnabout Theatre" in 1980
(foreword by Ray Bradbury).  There's also a documentary available on video.

As for the dust jacket's claim that these are the first adult puppet pieces
in America -- well, that may be an interesting topic for this board.  my
impression is that it's slightly hyperbolic.  certainly the Yale Puppeteers
deserve very major credit but, at the same time, Ralph Chesse' was
performing adult classics (Eugene O'Neill, etc.), and Remo Bufano was doing
original adult works as well as family oriented work.  but we have scholars
on this board who can provide more authoritative answers to this question.

Mark Levenson
markl-AT-levenson.com

----------
> From: Matthew I Cohen <matthew.cohen-AT-yale.edu>
> To: puptcrit-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
> Cc: puptcrit-digest-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
> Subject: Yale Puppeteers
> Date: Wednesday, December 25, 1996 6:13 AM
> 
> I recently purchased a copy of a book entitled "The Pie-Eyed Piper and
> Other Impertinent Puppet Plays as Produced by the Yale Puppeteers"
written
> by one Forman Brown. It was issued in a limited edition of 400 copies,
> each numbered and signed by the author, by Greenberg Publishers (New
York:
> 1933). 
> 
> In addition to the title play, the book also includes plays entitled
> Caesar Julius, Mister Noah, My Man Friday, and Uncle Tom's Hebb'n.
> 
> Little information is provided about either Forman Brown or the Yale
> Puppeteers, but enough to make me curious. Apparently, the puppets used
> were marionettes, constructed by Harry Burnett. While the name Yale
> Puppeteers seems to indicate a New Haven connection, the blurb on the
> jacket states that the plays have been "[p]resented before capacity
> audiences from New York to California", attended by "[c]elebrities as
> diverse as Greta Garbo and Albert Einstein". This suggests that the group
> did a fair amount of travelling.
> 
> The dust jacket states that the plays "hold the unique distinction of
> being the first puppet plays written in America for a sophisticated adult
> audience." 
> 
> The press comments also suggest that the plays were quite unusual for
> their time. Don Herold in Life notes "Either I am getting quite childish
> or this lad Forman Brownis doing something awfully adult-- and I don't
> think I'm getting childish." 
> 
> Does anybody on the list know something about these figures and
> institutions-- Forman Brown, Harry Burnett, and the Yale Puppeteers? And
> how does the dust jacket's claim to being the first puppet plays written
> in Amercia for a "sophisticated" adult audience?
> 
> Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season.
> 
> 
> Matthew Cohen
> Department of Anthropology
> Yale University
> 
> 
> 
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